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Chang's Bird-of-Prey
Chang's Bird-of-Prey was a prototype Bird-of-Prey commanded by General Chang in his efforts to discourage the potential peace talks between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. The vessel was equipped with a cloaking device that somehow allowed the vessel to fire its torpedoes while cloaked, an ability once considered impossible on other vessels, due to power constraints. As the escorted , which was transporting Chancellor Gorkon to Earth for peace negotiations, the cloaked Bird-of-Prey hid directly under the Enterprise. The only sign of its presence was a large amount of neutron radiation, which was detected too late as the Enterprise crew witnessed what appeared to be two torpedoes seemingly fired from their vessel hitting Kronos One, which was further complicated by the work of saboteurs who made it appear as though the Enterprise was missing those two torpedoes. As a result, Gorkon was assassinated, and Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy were arrested for his murder. Fortunately, the Enterprise daringly managed to rescue them, disobeying orders from Starfleet Command. Despite some skepticism from his fellow officers, Captain Spock, was able to determine the existence of this vessel, as it seemed to most logical explanation, if theoretical. His theory was proven true as he gleaned the information by way of mind meld with Lt. Valeris, who had been found to be in league with the conspirators, learning that there was only one such ship. After learning the new, secret location for the peace conference from Captain Sulu, on the , both vessels headed to Khitomer where the Bird-of-Prey was waiting for them. As Chang quoted Shakespeare over all the comm channels, his ship opened fire on the helpless Enterprise, causing it heavy damage. The Excelsior, arriving late, was just as incapable of tracking Chang's ship and was damaged as well. Spock determined that despite its cloak, the Bird-of-Prey still released plasma exhaust, and based on an idea from Cmdr. Uhura, installed equipment, with McCoy's help, on a photon torpedo designed to catalog gaseous anomalies. Once fired, the torpedo wound around space, slowly beginning to lock in on the exhaust from the Bird-of-Prey, until it impacted on the unshielded bridge, killing Chang and his command crew and exposing the ship, allowing further fire from the Enterprise and Excelsior to destroy it. ( ) Appendices Background The model explosion of this vessel was later reused for the destruction of the Bird-of-Prey in . Apocrypha In the novelization of the movie, this ship is called the Dakronh. This is likely in reference to the Hamlet character King Claudius, who, like Chang, was responsible for the faceless murder of a rightful ruler, although the motivations are different. The vessel is featured as a playable ship in two missions of Star Trek: Klingon Academy. Named the IKS guHmoH, the ship is used by the player's character to spy on meetings between Melkor and his supporters using a highly-advanced sensor array that requires the player to bring their ship within 50 kilometers of Melkor's bridge. Category:Unnamed Klingon starships de:Changs Bird-of-Prey